325 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



imagination 

 mperfeciion 



by virtue of his imitativeness. We become 

 conscious of what we ourselves are by imi- 

 tating others the consciousness of what the 

 others are precedes the sense of self grows 

 by the sense of pattern. The entire accu- 

 mulated wealth of mankind languages, 

 arts, institutions, and sciences is passed 

 on from one generation to another by what 

 Baldwin has called social heredity, each gen- 

 eration simply imitating the last. 

 Invention, using the term most broadly, and 

 imitation are the two legs, so to call them, 

 on which the human race historically has 

 walked. JAMES Talks to Teachers, ch. 7, 

 p. 48. (H. H. & Co., 1900.) 



1585. IMMIGRATION OF ANIMALS 

 FROM SHALLOW WATER TO THE DEEP 



SEA Gradual Adaptation to Their New Home. 

 Nor can we consider for a moment that 

 the abyss was the original source of the 

 shallow-water fauna ; for not only do we find 

 but few types that can be considered fo be, 

 in any sense of the word, ancestral in char- 

 acter, but on the contrary most of the ani- 

 mals of the deep sea seem to be specially 

 modified types of shallow-water forms. The 

 most probable explanation of the origin of 

 the deep-sea fauna is the one that was put 

 forward by Moseley and has been since 

 supported by almost every authority on the 

 subject, namely, that the fauna of the deep 

 sea has been derived from successive immi- 

 grations of the animals from the shallow 

 water. HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, 

 ch. 3, p. 54. (A., 1894.) 



1586. IMMORTALITY OF GRATEFUL 

 REMEMBRANCE A SHAM Delusion of Posi- 

 tivism. The positivist argument that the 

 only worthy immortality is survival in the 

 grateful remembrance of one's fellow crea- 

 tures would hardly be regarded as anything 

 but a travesty and trick. If the world's 

 long-cherished beliefs are to fall, in God's 

 name let them fall, but save us from the in- 

 tellectual hypocrisy that goes about pre- 

 tending we are none the poorer! FISKE 

 Through Nature to God, pt. iii, ch. 5, p. 170. 

 (H. M. & Co., 1900.) 



1587. IMMORTALITY, RACIAL, A DE- 

 LUSIVE HOPE The Moon a Dead World 

 Perhaps a Cemetery. The moon, then, is 

 dead; and if it ever was the home of a race 

 like ours that race is dead, too. I have 

 said that our New Astronomy modifies our 

 view of the moral universe as well as of 

 the physical one; nor do we need a more 

 pregnant instance than in this before us. In 

 these days of decay of old creeds of the 

 eternal, it has been sought to satisfy man's 

 yearning toward it by founding a new relig- 

 ion whose god is humanity, and whose hope 

 lies in the future existence of our own race, 

 in whose collective being the individual who 

 must die may fancy his aims and purpose 

 perpetuated in an endless progress. But, 

 alas for hopes looking to this alone ! we are 

 here brought to face the solemn thought 

 that, like the individual, tho at a little 



further date, humanity itself may die! 

 LAJSTGLEY New Astronomy, ch. 5, p. 171. (H. 

 M. & Co., 1896.) 



1588. IMMUNITY, NATURAL, OF 

 SOME PERSONS AND RACES Relative Im- 

 munity of Children and Adults Plague and 

 Leprosy Rare in English Race. The term 

 ' natural immunity " is used to denote nat- 

 ural resistance to some particular specific 

 disease. It may refer to race, or age, or indi- 

 vidual idiosyncrasies. We~not infrequently 

 meet with examples of this freedom from 

 disease. Certain races of men do not, as a 

 rule, take certain diseases. For example, 

 plague and leprosy, tho epidemic in some 

 countries, fail to get a footing in England. 

 This, of course, is due in great measure to 

 the sanitary organization and cleanly cus- 

 toms of the English people. Still, it is also 

 due to the fact that the English appear in 

 some degree to be immune. Some authori- 

 ties hold that the immunity against lep- 

 rosy is due to the fact that the disease has 

 exhausted itself in the English race. How- 

 ever that may be, we know that immunity, 

 entire or partial, exists. Children, again, 

 are susceptible to certain diseases and in- 

 susceptible to certain others to which older 

 people are susceptible. We know, too, that 

 some individuals have a marked protection 

 against some diseases. Some people coming 

 into the way of infection at once fall vic- 

 tims to the disease, whilst others appear to 

 be proof against it. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 

 7, p. 240. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



1589. IMPERFECTION OF HUMAN 



SENSES Dependence on Speed of Light- 

 Only the Past of the Stars Known And 

 That in Fragments Gravity Would Be a 

 Swifter Messenger. We learn by a view of 

 the heavens that twenty years ago Sirius 

 was shining with such and such brightness; 

 that a hundred years ago some other star 

 was shining with its degree of luster, and 

 so on; but the star depths are never re- 

 vealed to us exactly as they are at the mo- 

 ment, or exactly as they were at any mo- 

 ment. Yet this is merely due to the imper- 

 fection of our senses. We judge by the light 

 of these objects, and this light travels at 

 such and such a rate. It is conceivable that 

 creatures might have a sense enabling them 

 to judge by some other form of action, ex- 

 erted by the stars, as for instance by the 

 action of gravity. If gravity were the ac- 

 tion thus effective, the information conveyed 

 respecting the universe would be far more 

 nearly contemporaneous, since the action 

 of gravity certainly travels many thousands 

 of times faster than light, even if it do not 

 travel with infinite velocity as some philoso- . 

 phers suppose. PROCTOR Expanse of Heav- 

 en, p. 207. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



1590. IMPERFECTION OF INSTRU- 

 MENTS Diffusion of Light Weakens Optical 

 Image in Giant Telescope Atmospheric 

 Hindrances. Lord Rosse's telescope pos- 

 sesses a nominal power of 6,000 that is, 



